A marine heatwave is a period of extreme ocean temperatures (90th percentile above normal temperatures). But scientists debate what constitutes “‘normal.” The baseline period used changes the definition.
News & Features
Islands in the Caribbean can enjoy near-daily rainfall but have limited freshwater reserves, making them especially vulnerable to sudden, rapid drying. A new study identifies instances of widespread flash drought outbreaks.
New climate modeling indicates an increase in flash flooding across most of the United States. Heavy rainfall events will likely cause more frequent and stronger flash floods by the end of the century.
Traversing from Fremantle, Australia to Antarctica’s Prydz Bay and back again, the crew aboard the Research Vessel Thomas G. Thompson successfully concluded the I08S GO-SHIP cruise on April 1, 2024.
Heat waves and cold spells aren’t always as dramatic as hurricanes and tornadoes, but they can be just as dangerous. New research might soon enable forecasting of these events months in advance.
Forest Service personnel have turned to NOAA’s Climate Explorer tool for projections of future climate conditions. Available from the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, the tool provides climate projections for every county in the contiguous United States.
On October 5, 2021, retired former NOAA scientist Syukuro “Suki” Manabe was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his contributions to climate science.
A heat-tolerant algae found in some tropical Pacific corals can make reefs more resilient to heatwave events, according to an exciting new discovery reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
So you think you know what’s in the ocean? Even with decades of scientific research, more than 80 percent of the ocean remains unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored. That’s a lot considering more than 70 percent of the globe is covered by the ocean. NOAA is using Argo floats, gliders, drifters, and moored buoys to better understand the ocean depth
Some scientists are exploring Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) as warming-mitigation technique. A new article calls for a comprehensive international assessment of SAI’s potential impacts, risks and benefits.